Nashville indie rock band finds inspiration in the Great Lakes

Daniel Ellsworth (left) and the Great Lakes play uptempo indie rock with a pop influence.

Daniel Ellsworth (left) and the Great Lakes play uptempo indie rock with a pop influence. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Taylor Farnsworth, Of The Morning Call

Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie — the five great lakes of North America are what inspired the name of a four-piece indie pop rock band from a state that has no Great Lakes.

Daniel Ellsworth and the Great Lakes is from Nashville, hundreds of miles away from the Great Lakes, but band members have ties to the natural wonders.

"I sort of gave myself a band name before I had a band," Ellsworth says. "I grew up in Minnesota going to Lake Superior a lot."

Two other band members — bassist Marshall Skinner and guitarist Timon Lance — grew up in Ohio with Lake Erie close by. Drummer Joel Wren grew up in Kansas — no lake in sight.

The band's music is up-tempo indie rock with a pop influence. Ellsworth's keyboards bring the tracks to life, adding dimension and catchiness.

Ellsworth, frontman, vocalist and pianist, started out as a solo singer-songwriter music, but grew up in a musical family and always knew he wanted to start a band.

"I grew up in a super musical family — Christmas with my family is like the Von Trapp family," Ellsworth says. "I couldn't escape it even if I wanted to — and I didn't want to."

Ellsworth started playing piano when he was a kid and began singing at church and in school. He began touring as a solo artist while in college before putting together his band three years ago.

"I did solo music for a couple of years. It wasn't really what I ever wanted to do," Ellsworth says. "I always wanted to play in a band. I took some time off and decided to do this how I wanted to do it…It just kind of came together."

In 2011, the Daniel Ellsworth and the Great Lakes released its first album, "Civilized Man." When working on its sophomore album, the band was struggling to agree on a name for the record.

"We're a surprisingly agreeable band, from writing the songs, to naming the songs, to album artwork. We're super agreeable," Ellsworth says. "The record name was the one thing we couldn't figure out."

While on tour in Portland, Ore., Lance purchased a copy of Bob Dylan's book of experimental prose poetry titled, "Tarantula."

"It's filled with drug-ridden ramblings — none of it makes sense," Ellsworth says. "We were sitting in a park and we were going to open this book to a page and ended up on one of the letters in the book that was signed, 'your fellow rebel, kid tiger.'"

"Kid Tiger" was released in March.

"Our first record was sort of a mix of songs that I had already written and some that we had built up and arranged as a band," Ellsworth says. " 'Kid Tiger' we wrote completely as a band and that was something that we were working toward and just naturally happened. I definitely think that this record is a progression of our first record."

While "Civilized Man" showcased Ellsworth's transition from a solo artist to writing and performing with a band, "Kid Tiger" is a more cohesive album with the band collectively making decisions.

"When I was doing singer-songwriter I'd write a song about what I was inspired by or if this or that happened to me," Ellsworth says. "Now, I just try to not think too much about it and where inspiration is coming from and let it be more stream of consciousness. I'm letting the songs write themselves in a way they hadn't done before."

The progression of Ellsworth's music is apparent with the country-influenced song "Hieroglyphs" and songs such as "Take Your Time," which sound more like solo tracks. Ellsworth takes better advantage of his band with a more explosive pop sound on the songs "Sun Goes Out" and "Waves."

The band aims to translate the catchy sound of its recordings to its live performances.